I hate this pattern on news sites. Main page: "News!". Article page: "News! Watch this video!".

Video: No content

Outro: To learn more, visit our Facebook page.

News web sites, like Gmail, are a free service. And as the old adage says, if you're not paying for the service, you're not the customer, you're the product. You go to the main page - and see the ads - only to be directed to the story page - and see more ads - only to be redirected to the video - and see more ads - only to be redirected to their Facebook page - and see more ads - only to be redirected to their Twitter page - and see more ads - where you get the entire story, to the extent there is one, in 140 charcaters.

They have to put the non-story in a different place every time, of coruse, to keep you from just toing straight to the Twitter feed in the first place.

I hate this pattern on news sites. Main page: "News!". Article page: "News! Watch this video!".

Video: No content

Outro: To learn more, visit our Facebook page.

News web sites, like Gmail, are a free service. And as the old adage says, if you're not paying for the service, you're not the customer, you're the product. You go to the main page - and see the ads - only to be directed to the story page - and see more ads - only to be redirected to the video - and see more ads - only to be redirected to their Facebook page - and see more ads - only to be redirected to their Twitter page - and see more ads - where you get the entire story, to the extent there is one, in 140 charcaters.

They have to put the non-story in a different place every time, of coruse, to keep you from just toing straight to the Twitter feed in the first place.

Also, inevitably, one of the pages in the whole chain will inevitably 404. Usually the last one.

Sky-pee is the most common pronunciation of the name in some places, particularly Chinese speaking countries.

A-i-su-ku-ree-mu. This example is Japanese, not Chinese, but this is what happens when you try to force all foreign words (or loanwords) into a minimal set of syllable fragments. Aisukurimu (アイスクリーム) is how "ice cream" is pronounced by Japanese speakers, when they try to force it to be spoken using Katakana (their syllabary used for virtually all foreign words).

Skype cannot be pronounced perfectly according to Katakana, because "p" can only be pronounced with a vowel sound after it. From my understanding, "sk" is also impossible in Katakana, so in Japanese, Skype becomes スカイプ su-ka-i-pu, 4 syllables.

Sky-pee is the most common pronunciation of the name in some places, particularly Chinese speaking countries.

A-i-su-ku-ree-mu. This example is Japanese, not Chinese, but this is what happens when you try to force all foreign words (or loanwords) into a minimal set of syllable fragments. Aisukurimu (アイスクリーム) is how "ice cream" is pronounced by Japanese speakers, when they try to force it to be spoken using Katakana (their syllabary used for virtually all foreign words).

Skype cannot be pronounced perfectly according to Katakana, because "p" can only be pronounced with a vowel sound after it. From my understanding, "sk" is also impossible in Katakana, so in Japanese, Skype becomes スカイプ su-ka-i-pu, 4 syllables.

You are correct. Pure syllabic languages (like Japanese) have trouble with directly transcoding or transliterating (as opposed to translating, which is meaning-based) words from non-syllabic languages (like English or Spanish). "Ice cream" and "Skype" sound almost the same in Japanese and English because the Japanese pronunciation is quick and kind of slurs it together a bit in natural speech.

Other (impure) syllabic languages (like Korean) that have separate symbols for sounds can transliterate more easily and more accurately.

However, as far as I know, Mandarin Chinese does not have the same issues with a limited syllabary as Japanese, so their reason for saying "sky-pee" likely has to do more with pronouncing every symbol. Very few languages have silent letters, or at least they don't use them nearly as much as English.

However, as far as I know, Mandarin Chinese does not have the same issues with a limited syllabary as Japanese

It sort of does (there is a Chinese "phonetic alphabet") but the people I know say English loan words with an American accent (despite the fact that many of them don't actually speak English), except for a very small number of brands (Ke kou ke le) and proper nouns (Mai ke er Jie ke xun)

The fact is that sometimes for whatever reason a different pronunciation seems to be adopted, like with Skype, or with Apple's Re-tee-na display (I've been corrected on that one too, in an Apple store). It's somewhat understandable when you consider how god damn complex our spelling and pronunciation rules are.

Pure syllabic languages (like Japanese) have trouble with directly transcoding or transliterating (as opposed to translating, which is meaning-based) words from non-syllabic languages (like English or Spanish).

The separation of languages into syllabic and non-syllabic is new to me, and when I try Googling it I just get pages talking about syllabic vs non-syllabic vowels, consonants, etc. Can you point me to a definition?

It does usually sound like "skiyaki" when spoken, but the "u" is there, even if barely audible. For example in poetry or song lyrics it would be counted as four syllables, not three. "Sukiyaki" is also a perfectly acceptable pronunciation.

"Su" (す) and "zu" (ず) are distinct sounds, not interchangeable. Also note again that technically nothing ends with a consonant (other than "n"). Though "u" sounds (especially trailing ones) can often be effectively dropped in conversation, this is less common for other vowel sounds.

It's because i and u are "weak" vowels, and can be almost completely dropped from the middle of a word, unless that vowel is the entire syllable. (A, e, and o are the strong vowels.)

The first time I really noticed this was watching the dubbed versions of Iron Chef. The kitchen reporter dude's name was Fukui, and it took a while to figure out what, exactly they were saying when they referred to him. It always sounded like, "F'quee-san."

Sky-pee is the most common pronunciation of the name in some places, particularly Chinese speaking countries.

A-i-su-ku-ree-mu. This example is Japanese, not Chinese, but this is what happens when you try to force all foreign words (or loanwords) into a minimal set of syllable fragments. Aisukurimu (アイスクリーム) is how "ice cream" is pronounced by Japanese speakers, when they try to force it to be spoken using Katakana (their syllabary used for virtually all foreign words).

And don't forget going to get a burger at the local ma-ka-do-na-lu-do-sou.

I'm not sure what's worse... that interview or the fact that after seeing this post yesterday I burned about 3 hours of daylight watching various youtube videos. Then promptly forgot about it all. I saw this post today, clicked the link and hit play on the video.. and about 30 seconds into thought "this looks familiar..."

I'm not sure what's worse... that interview or the fact that after seeing this post yesterday I burned about 3 hours of daylight watching various youtube videos. Then promptly forgot about it all. I saw this post today, clicked the link and hit play on the video.. and about 30 seconds into thought "this looks familiar..."